School wants more classrooms to cope with demand

New classrooms are set to be built at a secondary school in Wolverhampton to cope with a rising demand for places.

Ormiston SWB Academy is due to expand its site in Dudley Street, Bilston, by adding the rooms in preparation for an extra 150 pupils joining at the start of the next school year.

More than 100 children missed out on a place at the Bilston establishment this year because they could not be accommodated, school leaders said.

They plan to increase each year group from 200 to 230 pupils for the 2025-6 school year.

"The proposed building will provide essential additional teacher and classroom spaces which will assist with the school being able to meet the educational needs of local people," according to a report by the City of Wolverhampton Council's planning officers.

Ormiston Academies Trust, which runs more than 40 schools across the country - including several in the Black Country and Birmingham - said it planned to build five new classrooms at the Bilston site.

These would include new IT and business facilities as well as an upgrade to the school's existing design and technology workshop and an extra science laboratory in the main school building.

A statement included with the application said the project was essential for the academy and the wider community.

"At present, a large number of 11 year olds who live in Bilston and the surrounding areas cannot attend a school in their community," it said.

"The academy's current September 2024 intake alone meant 101 children have not been offered a place at the academy, as they had hoped."

Also within the plans, school staff said they were planning to go back to their original drop-off area on the opposite side of the school grounds.

The change was in a bid to end traffic and congestion problems along with illegal parking in Dudley Street at the start and end of the school day.

The school, which opened in 2017, was rated good in its last Ofsted inspection in November 2021.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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